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Day: August 2, 2012

It was during the politically sanctioned “law and order” phase of our government when Nixon, Reagan, and Bush (1) touted the “war on crime” mantra that many cops were never charged for incidents such as this one even after internal investigations.

Most officers that did go before a grand jury or judge obtained acquittals of any wrong doing when a minority suspect turned up dead while on their way to jail or in jail….

A young African-American man in Jonesboro, AR died of a gunshot wound to the head while handcuffed in the back of a patrol car.

Chavis Carter was arrested for alleged drug possession and for missing a court date on previous drug charges.

Sergeant Lyle Waterworth of the Jonesboro police department, stated that Carter was “handcuffed, double locked and searched” for weapons. Still, the officer claims, Carter managed to shoot himself in the head after a “thump” was heard from the back of the squad car.

Carter’s mother, Teresa, isn’t buying the story. First, she claimed that her son was searched twice. She said that he was left-handed, but was shot in the right temple. She also said that he had called his girlfriend after he got pulled over and told her he’d call her from jail. She believes her son was killed.

On the campaign trail, Republican candidate Mitt Romney often touts his stewardship of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Utah, which he took over following a massive bribery scandal.

In a series of new articles, longtime investigative reporter Wayne Barrett reveals Romney may have violated the new ethics rules he put in place.

Today, Romney continues to accept campaign contributions from many key figures tied to the bribery scandal. Barrett, a Newsweek/Daily Beast contributor and a fellow at The Nation Institute, joins us to discuss his findings.

With the money flowing in Washington from Big Oil lobbyists, no wonder politicians on both sides don’t want to discus alternative energy proposals…at all. Although recent reports on a Koch funded study on Global Warming may or may not rattle a few feathers in Washington.

Every hour so far in 2012, the five largest oil corporations have recorded a $14,400,000 profit. And every hour, they received more than $270,000 in federal tax breaks. That adds up to $2.4 billion in subsidies every year for the five largest oil corporations — Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, and ConocoPhillips — all ranked as the top 9 companies in the world.

Even though BP posted an unexpected second-quarter loss, these five companies are on track to meet last year’s record profits. Put these numbers into context, and they are not so “disappointing“: Big Oil profits more in one minute than what 96 percent of American households earn in one year. Even so, Mitt Romney and House Republicans want to double what the five companies receive in federal tax breaks to $12.8 million per day, even though the three publicly owned U.S. companies paid an average tax rate of under 17 percent.

The graphic below illustrates where Big Oil directs these profits and its pollution over the course of a day: